Please Tell Me Im Not Going Mad...

[blue_betta]

ok, so im setting up a coldwater riverstyle aquarium, with the intention of having native species in it. so today i went to the local river to try and collect some sticklebacks which are my intended main fish. alas, i didnt see any at all, but i did see the odd stone loach so decided to try and catch on of those. after a few failed attempts, i spotted a largeish one with its head poking out from under a rock, and after a few attempts i coaxed it into my net. on placing it into my bucket of water i immediately noticed something wasnt right. as a child we refered to stone loaches as 'beardies' because of the barbels. this fish has none.. and seemed very flat copared to a normal stone loach. it also had a habbit in the bucket of clinging to the side of the bucket and poping its head up above the surface of the water, looking rather like a mudskipper.

on trying to id this fish... it apears to be a common goby, a marine/brackish water fish. so what? the nearest sea water is 20 miles away, with at least 2 very high waterfalls that i know of!
am i being stupid or is this a common goby?

http/www.flickr.com/photos/61748661@N06/

 

[KittyKat]

I am almost 100% certain that it is a goby. Pomatoschistus microps can be found in freshwater and have apparently been collected in Scotland before.

 

[blue_betta]

I am almost 100% certain that it is a goby. Pomatoschistus microps can be found in freshwater and have apparently been collected in Scotland before.

i know they can be found in scotland, ive found them in rockpools before. but everything ive read on them so far says they are marrine, but come into brackish water in summer. its early spring just now, and this is 20 miles inland!!

 

[KittyKat]

Apparently they live in freshwater quite happily! I'll try to find a paper on it, but not sure I will be able to do so easily..

 

[Caprichoso]

I am almost 100% certain that it is a goby. Pomatoschistus microps can be found in freshwater and have apparently been collected in Scotland before.

+1

 

[fluttermoth]

I am 100% certain it's a miller's thumb or bullhead Cottus gobio.

They're quite common, but so well camouflaged and good at hiding we don't see them often, but I've caught and kept them myself in the past.

They're not hard to keep, but do seem to suffer from a lack of oxyegen if the water temp goes up too; much sooner than sticklebacks or even minnows. A very high turnover pump/filter/powerhead and a large capacity tank so it doesn't heat up seem to keep them happy.

Please remember NOT to re-release these fish; especially if they've been near any tropical fish you might own (even sharing water change buckets or syphons is a risk) as you may introduce a foreign virus, bacteria or pest that could decimate the local river life, as they'd have no immunity to it.

 

[black angel]

I caught one of those years and years ago from my local river some 30 plus miles inland..and the river ghillie came to see what i had caught..he told me it was millers thumb and should be taken back to the river as they are really not aquarium fish..i was an avid collector of minnows in my youth...

hope you let it go in the end..as they do prefer the fast flowing rivers

 

[blue_betta]

i saw bullheads at the aquarium in london zoo last week, and i at first thought thats what i had in my aquarium, but looking at theirs, they looked very different, but having just googled 'millers thumb', im fairly certain thats what i have. its settled in well and eating prety much anything its offered. i didnt know we got them up here